Westport Donates Bi-Fuel Vehicle to Lawrence Tech

1535

SOUTHFIELD — Westport, a natural gas engine and vehicle engineering company based in Vancouver, B.C., has donated a bi-fuel Ford F-250 truck that can run on either gasoline, or compressed natural gas to Lawrence Technological University.

The bi-fuel truck — donated by Hamid Servati, vice president of Westport and president of Belleville-based ServoTech Engineering, a wholly owned subsidiary of Westport — will serve dual purposes- student research in Lawrence Tech’s alternative fuels program, and snow removal on campus.

“In the past 80 years Lawrence Technological University has done a great job of producing some of the best engineers and innovators with a great impact on the success of automotive industries among others,” says Servati. “We at Westport are delighted to be playing a small part in helping further those advances for a better economy and society.”

Westport engineers some of the world’s most advanced natural gas engines and vehicles. It works with original equipment manufacturers worldwide from design through production, creating products to meet the growing demand for vehicle technology that reduce both emissions and fuel costs.

“Having this truck will provide engineering students with the opportunity to study energy efficiency and systems optimization,” says Robert Fletcher, associate professor and director of the alternative energy program in Lawrence Tech’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “By going back and forth, they will be able to really understand the differences between the two systems.”